Image is of Jeff Daniels in The Newsroom, giving a speech (parodied below) about how - gasp - America sucks. But in a patriotic way.
And you - general megathread poster - yeah - just in case you accidentally wander into the news megathread one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest megathread in the world.
We’re seventh in citations, twenty-seventh in accurate predictions, twenty-second in effortposts, forty-ninth in non-mainstream article posting, 178th in guessing when wars will start, third in powerusers, number four in dialectics, and number four in megathread exports. We lead Hexbear in only three categories: pointless infighting, number of adults who believe Putin is based, and copium manufacturing, where we produce more than the next twenty-six lemmy megathreads combined, twenty-five of whom are full of delusional liberals. None of this is the fault of any Hexbear user, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest megathread in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! Jokes about whether they got a Zionist’s semen in time?!
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Now feels like a good time to link the disgusting NYT coverage of a vehicle attack in Zhuhai, China, in November. (In case you were wondering, yes, they are lying through their teeth about the “cover-up”) (Cover up means the lack of wild speculation and hysterical media coverage shoving cameras in the faces of bereaved relatives and blurring out mutilated corpses)
Also lol at 1984 removing memorial flowers. They do have to go at some point, you know that right, NYT “journalist”? I guess the concept of not leaving shit to rot on the street is foreign to Americans.
When a lot of Americans die, it is the worst thing to ever happen. When a lot of Chinese people die, the main story is that life is cheap in the orient and the Chinese brainpan is programmed to accept death and censorship
God knows why China keeps letting these “journalist” snakes into their country.
Muh brutal authoritarian crackdowns in Hong Kong clearly missed a spot if some professor of Chinese propaganda at a HK university gets to run his mouth about the mainland brainpan for a NYT hit piece. Seems like nativist and supremacist ideologies in HK haven’t yet been entirely uprooted.
For Real, VIL
Typical Westerner and hanjian
Pitching a tent across the street from the next mass shooting memorial and waiting until a city truck shows up to disassemble it so I can get pictures and put dystopian instagram filters over them
I know I shouldn’t expect any standards of morality or ethics or taste even from the media but I was genuinely shocked when I saw that they had the ruined remains of the New Orleans victims pixelated just enough to where you could still see the blood and gore.
If you don’t show mutilated corpses on TV that’s totalitarian 1984 censorship
Like CHYYYYYYNA
The boston bombing one of the bystander holding some guy’s leg artery closed in full detail comes to mind
Jolansky appeasing the watermelon seller by deleting Ottoman atrocities from Syrian history textbooks (CW: hanged victims):
https://xcancel.com/RaniaKhalek/status/1874621498327265681Erasing history to please their neo-Ottoman sponsors.
Turkish soft power has been quite successful in romanticizing the Ottoman Empire among certain Arabs for at least a decade now. But that power isn’t so soft anymore.
Hello, Zelensky (EU puppet)
Meet Golani (Israeli Turkish puppet)
All of which America is pleased to puppet over as well
One dead and seven injured in the cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International hotel. The fatal victim is still inside the car and firefighters are trying to pull him out. Authorities have yet to say what caused the fire that led to the explosion.
Burning yourself alive in a 100,000 dollar loyalty symbol to own the libs
🔥
🛻 🔥They’re not the worst people in the world, but Cybertruck owners have to be among the most broadly unsympathetic.
the car was a rental apparently
Biden’s address of the New Orleans attack was classico. He stumbled and slurred his way through the teleprompter before walking off the stage the second he was done talking like he pooped his pants.
In another possible terrorist attack in the USA, a Tesla Cybertruck filled with fireworks and explosives was blown up at the entrance to Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, apparently injuring 7 people.
Police are investigating the Incident, to determine if it was caused by the Vehicle itself, or a Device within the Vehicle.
still luv the truck tho
That was a few hours ago. All statements now are pointing to it being explosives and fireworks that caused the explosion. The video appears to show fireworks exploding.
Cybertruck blown up at Trump Hotel is a clear message to Musk and Trump by whoever did this.
I have a hard time believing the initial blast was fireworks. I guess if they somehow daisy chained a bunch of m80s than maybe. That initial blast looks more like lithium or a stronger explosive.
2025 off to quite a start:
Off topic, but I wonder how the Ulysses T user would react to seeing this image. Imagine taking him from a few months ago when he was doing his daily anti Musk and Trump posts, and showing him this image. I hope he’s doing well, it’s probably better for him to be offline and not as tuned into this.
Probably post about how star citizen took 8 trillion dollars in funding but doesn’t have elevators.
My personal view is this is most likely an accidental detonation of fireworks. If this is was in fact a deliberate “bombing” than it is one of the goofiest and most incompetent jobs I’ve ever seen.
Watching the video it is clear that the explosion comes mainly from the storage area (meaning it probably was initiated by something stored in the storage bed). Initially there is a slow moving fire ball/explosion, followed by a fire and numerous pyrotechnics going off. There is little evidence of a significant shock wave, and in fact it seems that the hotel lobby windows feet away are undamaged. The massive fireball accompanied by little damage from shock waves seems more consistent with pyrotechnics than with destructive explosives. Therefore my guess would be accidental detonation of pyrotechnics (likely with other combustible materials in the bed as well). This is also consistent with the driver still being in the vehicle when it went off. I cannot rule out two other possibilities
- It was a deliberate detonation and There was an explosive charge in the bed as well which failed to detonate properly, and instead the secondary explosive caught fire. I don’t know why large quantities of fireworks would be used for this. Or
- The guy is just a massive idiot and tried to blow up a hotel lobby with a car load of pyrotechnics. Doesn’t make that much sense but Americans have rotted brains.
Edit 1: another video of the aftermath does show combustible materials (camping fuel canisters, has cans) in the bed, but no evidence of actual explosives. In my view that eliminates the first of the deliberate scenarios I listed and adds more evidence to the second.
The collaborator authority did it again!
deleted by creator
https://xcancel.com/AP/status/1874304739938025575Ivory Coast asks French troops to leave, the latest African country to do so
This New Orleans attack reeks of Boston Marathon bombing.
What does that mean as far as motivation?
Feds.
I recommend the Trueanon episodes on the Boston bombing.
White House: We need a stronger pretext to execute pro-Palestinian students
FBI: I gotch’u fam
CGTN has a live view on youtube of the teslsa that blew up outside the Trump building https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4dEXa9SKMM
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
first baby of 2025 in turkiye is deniz mahir lol. named after deniz gezmiş and mahir çayan, 2 prominent leftist figures. I hope this is a sign of good things to come. I will not wish for small things anymore. I wish to dance in the ashes of white house this year
Soon friend, soon.
Nytimes is now confirming the flag found on the truck killer is an IS flag so strap in folks
Edit: multiple people involved which is pretty uncommon with these “isis inspired” kind of attacks since it usually involves a single person getting radicalized online(by Feds or otherwise) rather than a group like this that even included a woman which I’m pretty sure actual daesh would deem to be an apostate thing to do.
It’s possible the flag was meant to just be more of an edgy thing and something else motivated him but idk this is strange to me
Not enough info for me to go full 👁️ but between this and US military/tech connection this is pretty odd.
waving an ISIS flag while killing a bunch of civilians proves that you can take a person out of the US military but you can’t take the US military out of a person
Here’s a cha-cha throw back:
Not all troops
~7DeadlyFetishes
iirc, the biggest problem is that this user didn’t just start defending people like US soldiers in Vietnam and Iraq. But also Nazi soldiers and concentration camp guards, something like that.
Yep big “wow that escalated quickly” moment some may say.
iirc, the biggest problem is that this user didn’t just start defending people like US soldiers in Vietnam and Iraq. But also Nazi soldiers and concentration camp guards, something like that.
Birds of a feather roast in hell together, like you said
That user still posts on Reddit, primarily in NFL meme pages I think
I saw their (slightly adjusted) signature in a /r/cfb thread and got smacked with cognitive dissonance like a baseball bat to the knee.
Prime grounds to defend the troops and the democrats
Ex-US soldier and US citizen. Can’t blame this one on immigrants or foreigners, it’s a home grown terrorist who probably trained with ISIS-types while in the army.
This type of blowback is inevitable when you share a bed with ISIS
The Daesh flag will be repeated by the media ad nauseum, no one will ever know he was in the US military which is arguably more important as a cause of this attack
Jolani chuckles and says i disavow
Is the blob trying to goad Trump into entrentching in the middle east more rather than pulling out?
It seems like one of those false flag plays.
CNN too, if that means anything (it doesn’t). But yeah it looks like it could be an IS flag from the images on social media.
Now we got the cyber truck explosion in Vegas
If he’s white it won’t matter, if he’s not well…
Not white
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Today’s news and footage from Russia’s special military operation.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the Kiev regime’s military suffered 593,410 casualties in 2024: https://sputnikglobe.com/20250101/staggering-toll-ukraine-lost-nearly-600000-troops-in-2024-1121324133.html
A British mercenary surrendered to Russian forces near the partially Kiev-occupied DPR city of Dzerzhinsk (AKA “Toretsk”): https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--Another-British-mercenary-was-captured---Hayden-William-Davis!:b
Recent Russian strikes pounded a “HIMARS” MLRS column: https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--As-a-result-of-the-Russian-missile-strike:5
Hey everyone, was gonna post this like five hours ago but the site was down lol.
To continue on the idea of a reading club: If anybody has any recommendations for broad books on geopolitics then I’d be down to hear them. I’ve been told that Super Imperialism is a tricky read right off the bat, so we could instead:
a) start with something that starts from a more basic level like Lenin’s Imperialism, albeit perhaps less applicable to the specificities of the current moment b) start with a book that’s actually more recent than Super Imperialism, like Desai’s Geopolitical Economy, which I have read and I can say requires only the prior knowledge that somebody who frequents this site would likely have c) start with something else entirely, if there’s any suggestions. d) just stick with Super Imperialism, like @[email protected] is urging us to do all the time.
I recognize that book clubs are one of those things where you have like a hundred people join in and then by the time you’re halfway through the book, there’s like five people left. I’m the kind of loser who takes summarized notes on the books he reads, so my plan would be to release my chapter summaries as we go so that even if you cannot be assed to actually read a book, you can still benefit from the gist of it. Starting with b) would be advantageous because I’d only have to clean up my current notes.
I will actually start posting again soon lmao, just getting my sources back together again and catching up with what’s been going on
I’d personally go for lenin theory-posting to help folks understand some of the foundational baselines of scientific socialist terminology so more people are on the same page when more modern books are read.
Also helping more people learn that imperialism isn’t just “country invades country” is always a positive step forward.
One advantage of reading Super Imperialism is that there’s a comrade here that can help guide others because they’ve already read and understood the work and are good at providing helpful explanations. Combine that with some one on one recruiting, a facilitator if needed, and some promos so people can block out time and follow the schedule and you’ll be better set up for success.
Are there any other tie-ins that can be made re: Super Imperialism that would motivate participation? For example, participants could produce a work that relates Super Imperialism to a modern question. For example, challenges with BRICS. Obviously that’s more work but if there is something tangible to do it can help recruit and motivate. Doesn’t have to be BRICS! Maybe the aforementioned comrade would have a suggestion?
I’m the kind of loser who takes summarized notes on the books he reads
Okay, serious suggestion:
I’ve always wanted to read How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the Greater United States
Woah that sounds good
We should start with shorter works. Imperialism is good because it’s pretty short on top of being a foundational text.
As a mix of a and b, Samir Amin’s “Beyond US Hegemony? Assessing the Prospects for a Multipolar World” from 2006 could be a good idea, less than 200 pages and not that difficult a read, probably similar to Desai’s Geopolitical Economy. Just a suggestion.
Seconding Samir Amin’s work together with Lenin’s Imperialism for a start.
Super Imperialism, like most of Hudson’s work, is difficult, very academic and often requires multiple readings for things to start “clicking”, and going through a few pages per day is a good pace already. The first time I went through Killing the Host, another of Hudson’s excellent book, I understood maybe like 10-15% of it. It took several readings over the years (while interacting with news/events in the real world and applying that knowledge) for it to start making sense.
Having said that, I still consider Super Imperialism to be essential knowledge for serious leftists who want to understand how financial imperialism works at its core, even though I still don’t fully understand all of it.
I read all of Super Imperialism a year or so back and yeah I understood almost nothing until the very end when things start clicking, so I’d love to reread. Samir Amin is much easier, though I will say not his Unequal Development, which is on par with Hudson in academic heft. He’s got other easier books though.
Have you read Arrighi’s The Long 20th Century or Adam Smith in Beijing? Think you might enjoy them.
Not xiaohongshu but appreciate the recs
Down for a reread of Lenin’s Imperialism but I’d be very down for Super Imperialism. I’m not sure how many people would stick with it but you can count me in for the long haul.
I would join in for lenin’s imperialism but not for super imperialism i think
Imperialism in 21st century?
my vote is for super imperialism
I think we should just do Super Imperialism, a) because I want to reread it and b) it’s so clearly relevant to our kind of like “collective worldview” we’ve been cultivating here. Can’t think of another text that’s as clarifying, despite it’s difficulty.
Signing on for SuperImperialism, I could stand the re-read it. That being said,
I’d be interested in either Imperialism or Desai’s Geopolitical Economy, I’ve recently read and Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy, and liked it. I made some annotations (I should go back and turn then into notes), but I do remember getting bogged down in the middle parts where I felt like I didn’t have enough background in Finance for her arguments to sink in. So a reading group would definitely be helpful.
I have on my list some other books that comrades here have also listed:
Smith’s Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century (2016), Patnaik and Patnaik’s A Theory of Imperialism (2017), and I’d like more recommendations of Amin’s Political Economy work, even if we don’t end up reading any. On my list already I have Accumulation on a World Scale (1957) (An older work), Unequal Development (1976), and Modern Imperialism, Monopoly Finance Capital, and Marx’s Law of Value (2018).
I’d join just for the summarized notes
babies are freezing to death in Gaza
death to america, death to the zionist project
The Pantomime King’s Great Speech: Denmark Celebrates The Cult Of Mediocrity
Denmark, January 1st, 2025
Under the oppressive gloom of a grey, windy and rainy Danish winter, last night the nation’s eyes turned toward the imposing Amalienborg compound, a strictly laid-out collection of opulent rococo palaces in the heart of Copenhagen funded by the blood and sweat of enslaved Africans in the West Indies. Last night, this bastion of inherited privilege set the stage for the most sacred spectacle in Nordic hermit kingdom’s official cult of personality, the monarch’s annual new years eve speech.
The occasion was particularly historic—or farcical, depending on one’s perspective. Nearly a year ago, the nation’s aging ceremonial figurehead, Queen Margrethe Glücksburg, abdicated in favor of her son and hand-picked successor, Frederik Montpezat, in a bloodless but wholly undemocratic transition of power. Last night, Frederik, a man born into power and spared the inconvenience of earning it, addressed his subjects for the first time in this annual exercise of carefully choreographed worship.
Countdown to Conformity
Across Denmark, millions huddled in their homes, tuning into state television’s relentless pre-speech coverage. For hours, anchors speculated breathlessly about a speech they had not yet heard, as if deciphering holy scripture. Leading up to the address, viewers were treated to the Changing of the Guard—a bizarrely choreographed act of conscripts in 19th century costume goose-stepping to commands barked by NCOs adorned with heaps of medals of dubious origin as a military band plays the king’s theme song, a jingoistic anthem filled with gory details about crushing the skulls of Swedes. The pageantry was as polished as it was pointless, an overture to the banality yet to come.
The Stage Is Set for Mediocrity
When the speech finally began, the aesthetic was an affront to both tradition and taste. Gone was Queen Margrethe’s cluttered, knick-knack-filled office, replaced by a barren room awash in garish blue lighting — more befitting a teenage gamer’s Twitch stream than the gravitas of a head of state.
At the center of this barren tableau stood a desk and chair, as unremarkable as the man who would soon occupy them. Through an open doorway, viewers could glimpse generic black-and-white family photos that wouldn’t look out of place in a bland and beige living room in an IKEA catalogue. “This is the king showing personality,” we were meant to believe.
Enter Frederik Montpezat, a slim bearded man wearing a dark suit and round glasses, his movements stiff and mechanical despite hours of rehearsal. There’s only so much that even the finest walking lessons in the kingdom can do. The king’s deer-in-the-headlights expression as he looked into the camera was pure amateur theater, and every nervous tap on the desk was amplified by state television’s hapless sound engineers. If this was Denmark’s sovereign, one could only assume the nation was in more dire straits than it realized.
A Puppet King, Reading from a Script
The speech itself was a work of the Nordic hermit kingdom’s true seat of power, the Social Democrat-controlled Prime Minister’s Office, with the king only being trusted to add a few anecdotes and phrases for a personal touch. It was a symphony of centrist clichés. Frederik began with syrupy platitudes about Denmark’s youth, hollow gratitudes for public displays of loyalty surrounding the recent transition of power, and obligatory nods to the police and military.
Adhering to royal tradition, Frederik eschewed a teleprompter, instead fumbling with loose papers like a nervous student in a high school debate. In a moment of forced gravitas he mentioned Greenland and stared into the camera exclaiming that “we belong together!”—a veiled jab at his soon-to-be overlord, incoming American supreme leader Donald Trump.
Polarization Bad, NATO Good
The king lamented the dangers of so-called “polarization,” offering a trite endorsement of centrist complacency as the antidote to ideological passion. A convenient point of view for a man whose privilege depends on the status quo. Yet, no sooner had he decried division than he launched into uncritical praise of Ukraine’s disastrous war effort, describing their catastrophic and futile human sacrifices as a noble fight for European freedom. His silence on the Palestinian struggle for liberation spoke volumes; only conflicts convenient to NATO narratives are exempt from the king’s call for nuance and restraint.
Predictably, the king heaped praise on the American military organisation NATO, portraying the alliance as a benevolent force for peace rather than the instrument of imperialist violence and terror the rest of the world sees it as.
The Comedic Climate King
In a particularly galling display of hypocrisy, Frederik pontificated about green responsibility. This echoes similar sentiments expressed in a manifesto he released shortly after last year’s tradition of power, leading regime-loyal media to brand him as “the climate king”.
However, his saccharine green drivel had a comedic timing given how reports on the royal family’s extensive investments in fossil fuels, mining and companies abetting zionist apartheid had surfaced mere days before the speech. In the King’s own words “Nobody own the skies or the sea. The forests or the valleys. The meadows or the stars” — but somebody owns the oil wells, the refineries and the strip mines and Frederik Montpezat is one of those people. His words were not so much inspirational as they were a masterclass in unintentional self-parody.
Frederik’s grand finale was as unremarkable as the man himself. Clenching his fists on the desk as if bracing for an earthquake, he stared into the camera with a frozen, panicked expression and declared, “God save Denmark!” It was less a rallying cry than a plea for deliverance.
A Kingdom In Denial
No sooner had the screen faded to black than state television launched into a frenzy of uncritical adulation, displaying all the journalistic integrity of trained seals clapping at feeding-time, working hard to convince the public that the display of amateurism they had just witnessed was indeed an inspiring oratory performance.
Interviews with rain-soaked royalists outside the palace revealed a cult-like devotion, with supporters gushing about the honor of being in proximity to a man whose sole achievement was being born into the right family.
Frederik Montpezat’s debut was less a display of leadership than a grim reminder of the monarchy’s irrelevance. Yet, the Danish state continues to celebrate this mediocrity, perpetuating a cult of personality that blinds its people to the monarchy’s archaic absurdity.
As fireworks illuminated Copenhagen’s skies and the nation raised glasses to its king, one question lingered: does Denmark truly believe that the emperor is wearing his new clothes, or is it simply too invested in the fantasy to admit otherwise?
I adore your posts about rotten kingdom of denmark
I’m full with entertainment because your posts about Denmark are so good, and I’m also full with trepidation because I might have to go live there for my PhD.
I love your posting, never stop
You really have such a way with words. This year more than any previous one, I felt like the political messages of the speech were thinly veiled and obvious. Although perhaps that is just a testament to my own increasing radicalization, or that I’ve felt Margrethe had a modicum of charisma and gravitas, while Fred has the personality and wit of a bag of pretzel sticks left out in the rain.
